Slide collection lights up Fall River's steamboat past

FALL RIVER — Before there were televisions, movies or radio, there was the Magic Lantern.

The forerunner of the modern slide projector, these mysterious devices fascinated and entertained 19th-century audiences with outsized images of people and places both familiar and exotic.

The Marine Museum at Fall River on Feb. 3 presented a slide program entitled "What We Found in the Museum's Attic." Totaling more than 70 antique glass slides, the presentation centered on marine-related images from the Fall River Line and Narragansett Bay with some surprises thrown in.

Narrated by Andrew M. Lizak, vice president of artifacts for the museum, the show included period views of the iconic Fall River Line steamers, featuring a rare shot of the Commonwealth underway off Newport during a 1930s America's Cup race.

"Although we've cataloged most of our images, we were happy to find some new ones in storage in a mixed box of slides," Lizak said.

According to Lizak, the Fall River-to-New York boats had an excellent marine safety record, with double hulls, sealed bulkheads between compartments and more lifeboats than required by regulations. Showing a slide with spittoons scattered about a ship's salon, Lizak noted that there were some unpleasant duties for the line's stewards.

"The ships carried spittoons until 1910," he said. "Somebody had to clean them."

Photography expert John Wojtowicz, a member of the Photographic Historical Society of New England, acted as projectionist and offered a history of the Magic Lantern medium.

Although some of the vintage slides showed their age, Wojtowicz' 1940s Spencer model Delineascope, manufactured by the American Optical Co., projected the 3 1/4-inch and 4-inch transparencies flawlessly.

"We're lucky this machine survives," Wojtowicz said. "A friend of mine rescued it just as it was being thrown into a dumpster."

A surprise in the museum's newfound collection was a series of slides depicting an artist's rendition of John T. Trowbridge's 1910 poem, "Darius Green and his Flying Machine." Determined to fly, young Darius fashions a pair of makeshift wings from his mother's umbrellas and jumps off a barn with predictable results.

The fanciful color slides, a style just coming into vogue in the early 20th century, brought a comic conclusion to the presentation.

Next on the museum's event calendar is a lecture by Rich Shane on the late Shirley May (France) Setters, a Somerset native. An internationally known swimmer who set many world records, she achieved notoriety through her three valiant attempts to become the first woman to swim the English Channel. The presentation is set for Feb. 17, at 2 p.m.